We The People has continued to take in and eventually respond to the petitions that meet the relevant number of signatures. Two releases focused on science and/or technology related issues.
The first concerns permitting the federal/interstate sale of raw milk. (At the time the petition was filed, 5,000 signatures guaranteed a response.) The petition was in favor, the government remains opposed, noting scientific evidence was more clear on the harms rather than the potential benefits of having non-pasteurized milk. For what it’s worth, a majority of states allow the sale of raw milk within their borders.
The second is in specific response to two bills focused on foreign websites that violate intellectual property through fraud and/or theft (tackling the fake goods as well as providing bootleg materials). Called the Stop Online Piracy Act (the House) and the PROTECT IP Act (Senate), the bills as presently written would allow for the Attorney General to prevent foreign infringing sites from appearing in web browsers and search engines, or to receive payments and ad placements. There has been a host of opposition to these bills (on a number of fronts), and the main authors of both bills have indicated they will be taking a step back. The White House indicated that the solutions to this problem should make sure not to interfere with cybersecurity or disrupting the architecture of the Internet.
I’m not going to go into much detail on the technical aspects of the bill, as I’m dealing with it at the day job. You can likely read about it there in a few days. But I have noted an interest in We The People, and thought the responses worth mentioning here.
